Powder Injection Molding Market size and forecast, 2014-2020

Powder injection molding is an industrial manufacturing solution for producing alloy, metal, and ceramic parts. This process is widely used on account of its advantages, such as cleaner product output over other processes. The powder injection molding market is likely to grow with double digit CAGR over the entire forecast period. In addition, it is also expected that powder injection molding market value will grow 2X in 2020 as compared to its 2013 values.

The powder injection molding market can be segmented on the basis of its technology, such as ceramic injection molding (CIM) and metal injection molding (MIM). These technologies are expected to grow further owing to the demand from applications such as automotive, medical, healthcare, aerospace, consumer products, industrial machinery and others. Growing industrial expansion activities in regions such as Asia Pacific and Rest of the World are likely to spur the demand for powder injection molding market in such applications. Further, expansion in the machine manufacturing industry in the last few years serves as an opportunity for powder injection molding in various inter-related applications.

Further, on the basis of raw material used; global powder injection molding market can be categorized as stainless steel, soft magnetic alloys, titanium alloys, and low-alloy steels. Raw materials are selected on the basis of its end-use industry where innovation in the material science industry has led to the expansion of application areas. Some of the key end-usages propelling the demand for powder injection molding processes include electronic gadgets, medical equipments, firearms, and automotive components.

Geographically, Asia Pacific is currently the dominant market for ceramic and metal injection molding at a global level. Powder injection molding market is mostly prevalent in the automotive industry, where machine and machine-component manufacturers serve as the dominant market share end-user group for powder injection molding process. Further, powder injection molding market is supplemented by new environmental regulations, mandatory for companies to streamline production methodologies and reduce emissions. Consequently, the market for powder injection molding is growing as it produces parts to near net shape, thereby eliminating secondary machining processes. Thus, technologically advance machine tool markets such as Europe, with strict government regulations, are likely to create several opportunities for global powder injection molding market. Moreover, increasing firearms usage in the defense industry, especially in the U.S., is expected to boost powder injection molding industry growth in North America. Asia Pacific demand for powder injection molding is driven by the demand from electronics component applications. Europe powder injection molding market is dominated by automotive application, whereas, North America powder injection molding market is dominated by medical & healthcare applications. Therefore, it is expected that the regional market of powder injection molding market varies on a broader spectrum due to the variation in technology alongwith the variation in end-user industries growth in the respective regions. Further, market participants are more focused to target respective end-user industries to manufacture specialized products.

One of the major driving factors for global powder injection molding market includes growing demand for the miniaturized complex components to be used as high performance materials pertaining to various end-user industries. In addition, growing demand for medical equipments has fueled the demand for powder injection molding to manufacture medical micro-parts to be used in various medical procedures and techniques. Invasive surgery, Intravenous therapy, advanced drug delivery and vascular therapy require precise equipment manufactured with state of the art manufacturing method. Intricate shapes of medical devices require specialized manufacturing methods. Ability of powder injection molding method to form precise shapes as compared to conventional manufacturing methods is supplementing the growth of medical and healthcare application segment.